Battle Royale!
by Shining Pheonix
Summary: Heroes from across the dimensions have all traveled in search of one man, but encounter each other along the way. Unforutunately, they all want to kill each other. As a side note, who is this Luminous Raptor anyway?


**Battle Royale!**

**First Round:**

**The Demon, The Hunter, and The God of Destruction**

This whole station smelled of a trap.

Master Chief stepped off the Pelican dropship he had been loaned for this mission onto the cold deck of the space station's hanger bay. The UNSC had received intel that an individual known as the 'Luminous Raptor', apparently a high-level Covenant unit, was on this station somewhere, and that he was the mastermind behind the reconstituted alien hierarchy.

The fact that the spooks in ONI had gone so far as to give a detailed physical description of the entity, a tall humanoid unit with red armor, wasn't helping ease the feeling in his gut at all.

Zero stalked down the hall of the derelict station. Ciel had located one of Wiel's more devious inventions, a unit called 'Luminous Raptor', on this station. The ease with which he had arrived on the station, as well as the fact that he had met almost no resistance thus far, sang a song of 'trap' to him. The 'Raptor', he was told, didn't look like a bird at all, but was in fact a humanoid, roughly his height, wearing orange armor. Why the hell Weil decided to call the thing 'Luminous Raptor', was anyone's guess, as the smiling son of a bitch sure wasn't going to be talking to anyone any time soon.

Samus entered the station's emergency air lock. She had been hunting this guy for the last week, but an anonymous tip had led her to this abandoned station. According to her tip, the 'Luminous Raptor', a tall humanoid in green armor, had last been sighted in the area of this station, and might possibly still be here. Even though she knew there was no way the guy could know that she was already here, the feeling that she was walking straight into a trap just wouldn't go away.

Chief pulled his equipment out of the Pelican's exterior compartment, and started slapping clips of ammo into the various accommodating slots in his armor. His load out for this mission was rather heavy, an MA5-B assault rifle, a Magnum heavy pistol, an energy sword (a gift from the Arbiter), and an experimental heavy weapon, the Spartan Laser, in addition to six grenades of varying type. Carrying all that equipment would slow his top speed a bit, but he figured that he could always drop something if he had to. After slapping a magazine into the MA5-B, Chief started down one of the poorly-lit corridors deeper into the station.

Zero couldn't help but shake the feeling that he wasn't alone anymore, and long experience had told him to trust his instincts. Drawing his buster, Zero moved down the hallway, hugging the shadows on the bulkhead to maximize his stealth. Whoever was here, he was about to get a fully charged high-impact surprise.

Samus had found the hanger control area, intent on finding a station map and shutting down a possible escape route for her quarry. Looking out the viewport, she spotted the craft sitting in the hanger, and noted that there was enough space inside for more than twelve fully-geared troops. Not liking the possible change in odds, Samus double checked her weapons and shields, both read all green. Releasing the safeties on her missile system, Samus stalked down the corridor, ready and waiting for anyone that she met.

Zero picked up the weapon system activation on the other side of the bulkhead, causing him to drop to a kneeling position to minimize his target profile while maximizing his accuracy. The next person to round the corner was going to get a rather nasty surprise.

Chief's motion sensor pinged a contact to his left down the next hall. Rather than risk getting out gunned in the first round, Chief slowly snuck down the corridor, carefully peeking around the corner. At the next intersection, hiding against the bulkhead much like he was doing, was a red-armored unit facing away from him, but kneeling in what was obviously a firing position. Chief wasn't one to jump to conclusions easily, but if he had to guess as to his new guest's identity, he would say that he had just found 'Raptor'. Chief brought his MA5-B to his shoulder, lined in the sights, and let his finger hover over the trigger…

Samus's thermal image detector gave a warning, two hot bodies just at the next intersection. Both appeared to be armored, leading Samus to believe that one of them had to be her prey. Deciding on a strafing pass, Samus increased her speed and angled her blaster arm to the appropriate angle. Just as she was about to pass the corridor opening, she triggered the firing mechanism…

Zero saw the orange-clad unit charge down the corridor, and held his ground. He waited for the unit to come just to the opening of the corridor, then he released his charged shot, just as the orange unit, whom he now suspected to be 'Raptor', opened fire. Rather than stay and get hit, Zero ducked, and heard three impacts from a projectile weapon hit the wall he just vacated.

Chief cursed silently. 'Raptor' had some extraordinary luck, ducking to dodge incoming fire from an unknown opponent just as he himself fired. Rather than face two hostiles in a drawn out gunfight, Chief decided on a simpler approach, and unclipped a frag-grenade from his bandolier. He primed the pin, reared back, and let fly.

Zero spotted the green-armored unit as he came up from his roll. He also spotted the familiar green pineapple shape the unit was currently in the process of hurling in his direction. Deciding that today was _not_ his day to die, Zero found his feet and hit his Emergency Acceleration System for all he was worth.

Samus saw the red unit vacate his hiding spot in a hurry, going in the direction _opposite_ her's. She didn't have long to see why, as the grenade bounced off one wall and landed in the intersection. Samus spotted an open vent just to her left, so she triggered her morph-ball and hauled ass toward the protective cover. She dodged most of the blast, but the trailing edge still shaved a few points of energy off of her shield, propelling her down the air duct at high speed. As she sped down the duct, she spotted the grenade-thrower through another vent, a unit in green armor, who had to be the 'Luminous Raptor'.

A hole in the vent brought Samus back down into the main corridor. Disengaging her morph-ball, Samus brought her cannon back up to bear on… an empty wall. Samus scanned the nearby corridor, only to be thrown to the side as she took a massive energy round in the side, her shields dropping a dangerous amount. Mentally kicking herself for not paying attention to her surroundings, Samus rolled back onto her feet, only to meet the red-armored unit, ready and waiting with another shot from his pistol-like weapon.

Zero had only got one shot off against Raptor before he rolled back to his feet, bringing his attached cannon back to bear and firing a string of shots, forcing him to dodge. The orange-armored unit was stronger than he thought. Before Zero could recover from his latest dodge, a brightly glowing blue sphere landed in between himself and Raptor, likely thrown by the green unit who had the projectile weapons. The sphere's glow increased in intensity, and gave off a visible electrical glow. Considering that the green unit had used thrown explosives before, it was time to leave.

Chief found Raptor and the orange assailant in a close quarter's gunfight. Since conventional explosives hadn't had much effect, he'd try something a little different this time. Pulling a plasma grenade off of his bandolier, Chief lobbed it between the two combatants. The grenade struck the floor and fused with it, its blue glow belying its destructive nature. Unfortunately, both Raptor and the orange unit ducked out of the way before the device could detonate, although both units' shields flickered with the wash of EMP. Bringing his rifle back into play, Chief followed the Raptor with a quick burst of automatic weapon fire.

Zero ran as the bullets followed his trail, finally ducking into a vacant room. Slamming the door, he bought himself a moment's reprise. That blast had shaved more off of his personal shield system than he cared to admit, and needed the moment to recharge. The Raptor had proved to be a serious threat, but the green unit and his explosives were an equation that needed to be balanced and quickly.

The red unit had sealed himself in a random room, protecting himself from the gunfire of Raptor's antiquated, but highly effective, weaponry. While Samus would have been more than happy to let Raptor and this green unit blast each other to bits, something in this fight had to change to let _someone_ get the edge here. While the green unit was occupied with swapping clips, Samus brought her cannon to bear, switched over to missiles, and let fly.

Chief's luck still held, apparently, as he began turning just in time to watch what appeared to be a missile fly by his head and explode against the wall behind him, throwing him to the floor. An audible alarm blared in his helmet, warning him of his depleted shields. The force of the explosion had thrown him past the orange unit, who appeared to be switching weapon systems. Never one to waste a free shot, Chief brought his Magnum to bear and unloaded a clip into Orange's shields.

Samus staggered as the rounds hit home, causing her to take several steps back. While the individual rounds did little actual damage, the force at close range was impressive. While she had taken more damage than she would have liked, the distance gave her room to fire without injuring herself. Bringing her cannon back to bear, she unleashed a volley of energy blasts at Raptor and his now-depleted shields.

Chief rolled as the plasma rounds impacted the deck behind him. Moving quickly, he scooped up his dropped battle rifle and continued down the corridor to escape the hail of enemy fire. After rounding a corner, Chief spun and dropped to one knee. Peeking his rifle around the corner, he unloaded the rest of his clip in Orange's direction. While his right hand was occupied with keeping up the hail of bullets, his left was busy freeing his Spartan Laser from its sling.

Zero peeked out the door, double checking that the corridor was indeed clear. Finding it so, he entered the corridor himself. The acoustics inside this station were pretty good, but the echo was playing havoc with Zero's audio systems. His infra-red systems, however, were functioning just fine, allowing him to easily follow the trail of energy rounds to the current gunfight. Raptor had the green unit pinned in the corridor just outside of what he guessed to be the station's command room. Deciding that it was time put this fight on _his_ terms, Zero drew his Z-Saber.

Samus didn't see the red unit until it was almost too late. Red had drawn some kind of energy blade, and was in the process of charging down the corridor at her. Taking immediate action, Samus triggered her morph-ball to dodge the initial thrust. Dropping a morph-ball bomb, she quickly moved several feet away to avoid the blast.

Zero skipped back a few feet to avoid the small explosive device Raptor dropped. The miniaturized blast was devastating to anything within three feet of the device, but produced almost no shrapnel, so Zero was completely unaffected. Dashing forward again, Zero slashed for the rapidly uncurling Raptor.

Samus's shields barely held against the energy blade's swipe. Stumbling backwards, Samus fired blindly. Red had been dangerous at medium range with his gun, but he was simply _devastating_ with that blade, and she couldn't afford to let him get close again.

Zero slashed the few rounds that came close away with his saber, continuing his rushing assault on Raptor, pushing him back into the corridor intersection. Raptor finally appeared to get desperate, letting a missile fly. Unable to block or deflect the projectile, Zero ducked to the side. As he did, a massive burst of energy flew from the corridor behind him.

Chief had watched the encounter from his position behind the bulkhead. Realizing, much as he was sure Orange had, that Raptor and his blade was something best dealt with at range, he limbered his Laser. Tracing his sights on Raptor's back, he watched as Orange was forced back into the intersection. Just as the Spartan Laser's power hit critical, Raptor again ducked incoming fire, leaving the Laser's deadly blast to slam into Orange and his now non-existent shields.

Zero was a hard man to impress, but any weapon that could blast a man through five feet of armored hull into the vacuum of space was _definitely_ worth paying attention to. Bringing his saber back to a ready position, all he could do was pray that Green only had one shot.

Chief was impressed. Orange had been completely blown off his feet, through the bulkhead, and, if he was still alive, out into the void on the other side. Unfortunately, the Spartan Laser's power cell had shorted after that first shot, leaving Chief with nothing but conventional weaponry to deal with Luminous Raptor. Lacking much option, Chief drew the Arbiter's energy sword and prepared to meet his red adversary.

Zero's respect for Green just went up a notch, as the unit drew an oddly shaped energy blade and took up a ready position. Both combatants held their positions, neither willing to make the first move. Finally, as one, both rushed down the corridor with blades at the ready.

At first contact, Chief knew he was outmatched. Raptor had him in both reach and sheer physical strength, proven by his armor declaring alert after alert that the reactive gel in his joints was at the breaking point. Breaking off, Chief took a step backwards, only to be forced to parry again as Raptor pressed his advantage. At this distance, Chief's shields were sparking just from the closeness of the connected blades.

Zero pressed his advantage, finding his opponent's skill with a blade lacking. While definitely competent, Zero had centuries of continues fighting to hone his skills, and Green was simply outclassed. Two parries and a thrust later, Green had been backed into a corner with no way out. As fun as this trip had been, it was time to finish this maverick and head home.

Chief knew that this was it. Raptor had proven to be more and less than he had expected. No, scratch that. This guy wasn't Luminous Raptor, nor had Orange been. They had all been tricked! Before he could call a halt with his powerful opponent, Red made his final thrust…

His job done, Zero found his way to the hanger, where what appeared to be Green's gunship sat docked. Stepping inside, he quickly deciphered the simple controls, powered up the ship, brought it out of the hanger, and set course for home.

Somewhere in the universe, a lone being sat at a computer screen, plotting what poor, innocent souls to throw into a life and death battle next.

**A/N: This story is a bit different for me in several ways. Primarily, this story will be very action based, as apposed to my normally dialogue driven stories, which brings us to the second point, in that this story will contain almost no inter-charecter dialogue. If anybody can't figure it out from either the title or the action of the chapter, this story will encompass many different charecters from allmost as many different series, with one charecter from the previous chapter surviving to face off in the next round, so if anyone has anyone from a video game or anime series that they want to see thrown into the frey, send it to me in the review! As always, your ever-burning author,**

**Shining Pheonix**


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